Winners of nine out of their last ten games, the New York Yankees are looking to recapture the AL East lead. With the remainder of Saturday's matchup (the Yankees currently lead the Baltimore Orioles 3-0 in the fifth inning) and Sunday's game left, time is running out for the Yankees to catch up to the Toronto Blue Jays. Home runs from captain Aaron Judge, third baseman Ryan McMahon, and designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton have powered the Bronx Bombers so far. With his second-inning solo shot, Stanton surpassed Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski on the all-time home runs list with 453, according to the official MLB Stats page on X, formerly Twitter.

“Giancarlo Stanton's 453rd career home run breaks a tie with Carl Yastrzemski for 40th place on the all-time home run list,” posted the league's official stats page.

Stanton's 453rd home run was yet another historical moment in the slugger's career. 500 career home runs certainly remains within reach. Perhaps more than that as well. Even though Stanton is already 35 years old, the Yankees' strategy of playing him almost exclusively at designated hitter could help him as he continues to age. Although New York has learned that it would be lucky to get over 100 games from Stanton in a season, it's clear that his power continues to be a major problem for the Yanks' opponents. Will Stanton's insane performance in last year's postseason continue this October?

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Yankees, Giancarlo Stanton look to build off of history-making moment

Boston Red Sox outfielder Carl Yastrzemski waits on deck during a 1967 game.
Mandatory Credit: Photo By Malcolm Emmons-Imagn Images (c) Copyright Malcolm Emmons

Surpassing Yastrzemski on the all-time home runs list is a massive accomplishment for Stanton. The legendary Red Sox outfielder played 23 seasons, every single one of them with Boston. A lifetime WAR of 96.4 was highlighted by a 1967 MVP win in addition to three other top ten MVP finishes.

While Stanton likely won't get close to Yastrzemski's career contributions (the slugger has 46.6 WAR in 16 seasons thus far, per Baseball Reference), it's clear that he still brings a lot to the Yankees when healthy. In only 75 games played so far this season, the designated hitter has 23 home runs and 64 RBIs to go with a .267 batting average. Meanwhile, his OPS is .926. It looks as if Stanton is starting to round into the spectacular form he showcased during last year's World Series run. Can the powerful slugger push New York towards another Fall Classic appearance next month?